Loveland Fire Rescue Authority firefighters pulled the bodies of a mother and her adult son from a burning west Loveland trailer just after midnight on Thursday.

While firefighters were able to put a quick stop to the blaze and stop it from spreading to nearby trailers, 70-year-old Hazel Piper and 50-year-old Harvard Preston Thomas were declared dead at the scene. According to neighbors, the residents of the trailer were mother and son.

Following autopsies performed on Thursday morning by the Larimer County Coroner's Office, both died as a result of the fire. Piper died of inhalation of toxic products of combustion and Thomas' cause of death was listed as smoke inhalation and thermal injuries.

Loveland Fire Rescue Authority fire inspection technicians speak to Larimer County Sheriff's investigator Jonathan Cox, left, as they investigate a fatal fire Thursday at the Mountain View mobile home park at 1212 Butte Road west of Loveland. A man and a woman died as well as five pets.
(
Jenny Sparks
)

The deaths were ruled accidental, according to the coroner's office.

The Loveland Fire Rescue Authority and Larimer County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to the Mountain View Mobile Home Park at 1212 Butte Road — west of city limits just south of U.S. 34 across from the Group Publishing offices — just after midnight on Thursday.

Fire crews arrived at 12:10 a.m. and found smoke coming from the swamp cooler at the top of trailer No. 30 and flames coming from a side window, Division Chief Greg Ward said.

“When the crew opened up the door they saw smoke from the ceiling to the floor,” Ward said.

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The victims were removed by firefighters about 10 minutes after crews first arrived. According to Ward, the victims were located in different areas of the trailer; one was removed from the front door and firefighters took the other out the rear door.

It was unclear if the trailer had been equipped with smoke alarms.

The Larimer Humane Society took five pets from the scene, spokeswoman Stephanie Ashley said. Four cats and one dog were all deceased.

Neighbors said they regularly saw Piper outside walking the dog, Snow, around the neighborhood. Patricia Loftus said she has lived next door to Piper and her son for more than a decade and considered them both friends.

“I don't know when it all happened or how it happened,” Loftus told reporters through tears Thursday outside of her home. She recalled being woken up by a loud noise that “sounded like a helicopter right outside my bedroom window,” and saw the many lights of police and fire vehicles.

Though Loftus' home and others are in very close proximity within the mobile home park, Ward said that no other structures were threatened.

“We put water on the fire through that window (where flames were showing) to quickly knock it down,” he said.

The location of the nearest fire hydrant did present a challenge for the firefighters working outside of city limits. According to Ward, they had to use more than one engine to lay about 1,100 feet of hose to reach the trailer from the nearest hydrant at Butte Road and U.S. 34.

Investigators from the Larimer County Sheriff's Office and Loveland Fire Rescue Authority remained at the site throughout Thursday afternoon. The cause and origin of the fire remains under investigation.

Anyone with information on the fire is asked to call the Larimer County Sheriff's Office at 970-416-1985 or Crime Stoppers at 970-221-6868.

A mobile home is surrounded by caution tape as investigators look into a fire early Thursday that killed two occupants. (Reporter-Herald/Jenny Sparks)

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